Lessons Learned from External Quality Assessments 2019-2020

Continuous evaluation and improvement of the service provision is a key feature of professional organisations. Such reflection and development strongly contribute to the confidence in and added value of the services. This also holds true for internal audit functions (IAFs). The professional standards of the Institute of Internal Auditors (IIA) therefore include a mandatory programme for quality assurance and improvement. This includes an external, independent quality assessment, which must take place at least once every five years.

This report describes the results of the analysis of the external quality assessments performed in 2019 and 2020. A similar analysis was performed earlier in 2018. In addition to the report, the results this year can also be seen in a PowerBI. With possible selections per Standard, at main and detailed level, and by size of the IAF, it is possible to see even better which points of interest may be of value to the reader. With this report, the IIA provides IAFs with tools for the next step in their quality improvement. In addition, this report is a tool for IAFs in preparing for an external quality assessment.